Cat Deeley
Catherine Elizabeth "Cat" Deeley (born 23 October 1976) is an English disc jockey, television personality and former fashion model, who rose to fame at the age of 21, co-hosting the well-known children's series SM:TV Live, alongside Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, for also hosting Stars in their Eyes since 2004, and for hosting So You Think You Can Dance, during its second season in 2006. Biography Early life and career The elder of two children, born in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, England, Deeley attended Grove Vale Infant School in Great Barr, Birmingham, followed by Dartmouth High School, where she played clarinet in the Sandwell Youth Concert Band. She continued her education at Bishop Vesey's Grammar School's Sixth Form. After achieving nine A grade GCSEs and four A-levels at school, Deeley became a full time fashion model. She occasionally hung out with her brother Max, becoming a tomboy. Prior to this, she entered a regional BBC competition called The Clothes Show, where she made it through to the finals. She was spotted by an agent, and Deeley signed with the Storm modelling agency, where Kate Moss was also on the roster. She shortened her first name to Cat because there were several other Storm models named Catherine. From modelling to television Deeley left modelling after two years and became an MTV UK presenter in 1997. She usually co-hosted with Edith Bowman, with whom Deeley is friends. From 1998 - 2002, she was co-host with Ant and Dec on the Saturday morning children's show SM:TV Live and also hosted its spin-off shows CD:UK (From 1998 to 2005) and CD:UK Hotshots. On SM:TV Live, she often acted as an apparently slightly unwilling assistant whenever the show featured a guest appearance by a magician. During her time with the show, she regularly found herself appearing and disappearing, and being crushed, stretched, levitated, impaled and guillotined. However, by far the most common event was for her to be sawed in half, an illusion she participated in several times in its various forms - most commonly the traditional "Thin Model" version. In one of the most memorable performances, after she had been divided in two and her halves separated, they were both then "stolen" by Ant and Dec, who wheeled them off-stage in opposite directions! In another performance of this illusion, she became the first British celebrity to participate in the "Clearly Impossible" version of the illusion, where she was divided in two inside a clear-sided box which allowed her entire body to be seen at all times during the sawing-through and separation. In 2001, she won a Children's BAFTA award for best presenter and appeared in an episode of the BBC's Happiness. In 2002, Deeley appeared in a television commercial for the British high street store Marks and Spencer. Other programmes she has hosted include Record Of The Year, Fame Academy, The Brit Awards 2004 and Stars in Their Eyes, as well as a weekly show on London's Capital FM and BBC Choice series Roadtripping both with former MTV colleague Edith Bowman. In 2003 she became patron of Great Ormond Street Hospital, and in 2005 she played herself in an episode of Little Britain and provided the voice of "Loretta Geargrinder" in the UK version of the film Robots replacing Natasha Lyonne Making it big in America Since 2006, she began hosting the second season of American reality show So You Think You Can Dance, replacing Lauren Sanchez, who was pregnant at the time. Deeley interviewed Kylie Minogue for a television special which aired in the United Kingdom on Sky One on 16 July 2006, in Australia on Channel Nine on 17 July 2006 and BBC America on 9 September 2006. Deeley also had a stint as a guest reporter on NBC's Tonight Show around this time. She has presented Fox's New Year's Eve special live from Times Square in 2006 and 2007. She is also an entertainment contributor for ABC News, providing coverage from various awards shows including the Golden Globes and the Grammy and Academy Awards. In 2007, she presented the British coverage of season 6 of American Idol for ITV2. She filmed segments and interviews with celebrity guests and eliminated contestants for UK audiences that were shown just before and after commercial breaks. However, this was not popular with viewers who saw Deeley's role as 'unnecessary'. She will not return with season 7 of American Idol in 2008. For a period, Deeley was the face of Shape Water and a number of Garnier Fructis products, appearing in print and television advertising in the UK and Ireland. On July 1, 2007, Deeley was one of many celebrity speakers appearing at the Concert For Diana. The event, watched by an estimated 500 million viewers worldwide, was held at the new Wembley Stadium. Also in 2007, magician David Copperfield invited her to take part in a charity show he was organising in Los Angeles. Copperfield invited her to take part after hearing reports that the house in Los Angeles where she was living used to belong to Marilyn Monroe. During the show, she was sawed in half by Copperfield using his antique "Buzz Saw" illusion which formerly belonged to Orson Welles, and that Welles had once used to saw Monroe in half.Sitting down with Cat Deeley On & Beyond, 4 June 2012. In January 2008, a new series of So You Think You Can Dance started its auditions, with Deeley again hosting. She is to return to the UK to host a new dating show called The Big Match and to host the UK version of So you think you can Dance. Personal life In 2000, Deeley began dating Mark Whelan. On January 5, 2001, the couple married in London in a small private family ceremony. After five years of marriage, they divorced on February 25, 2006. Following her divorce, Deeley was romantically linked with a number of other celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio. However, in October 2006, she began dating Jack Huston. In April 2007, they became engaged, and married on October 28 2007. In August 2008, Deeley gave birth to the couple's first child, Emma Louise Huston. On June 9 2010, it was announced that Cat and Jack were separating, with Jack citing the need to concentrate on his acting career, and they divorced in March 2011. In early 2012, Patrick Kielty revealed that he and Deeley were in a relationship. They were married 30 September 2012 in Rome. On September 3, 2015, Cat revealed on Twitter that the couple were expecting their first child together. Trivia *Renowned for her looks, Deeley has often appeared in 'sexiest women' lists and the like, and has posed for countless photo-shoots in men's and women's magazines. Once, in 1999, she casually mused in an interview that she would like to appear in a Playboy photo-shoot one day. When, in a separate FHM interview, she was asked to confirm in the plainest terms that she would pose completely nude for a photo-shoot if offered a million pounds, she replied unequivocally in the affirmative. To date, however, she has not. *Deeley once commented that the television personality she found most annoying was Vanessa Feltz, because she was heard talking about her private life too often. *She is known to be a friend of the fashion designer Matthew Williamson and frequently wears his clothes during red carpet events. *Although married, she doesn't usually wear her wedding ring while presenting or making public appearances. This has led to the common misconception that she's not married. *While she continues to be known as Cat Deeley for professional purposes, since getting married, she's preferred to be known as Catherine Huston in her private life, and that's the name now on her passport and driving licence. *She has three piercings in each earlobe. She first got her ears pierced when she was 15, when school rules allowed only one piercing per ear. In 2003, Cat and best friend Edith Bowman, while out shopping in London, decided on a whim to each have both of their ears pierced an additional two times, making three piercings in each ear for both of them. *Although it has been widely reported that her house in Los Angeles used to belong to Marilyn Monroe, Cat has gone on record to say that those reports are actually incorrect. Quotes (On Ryan Seacrest): Ryan Seacrest should get it. He's brilliant. He's an absolute professional. . . . But if he is busy, I will be more than happy to clip myself into a frock . . . and get down there. (When she replaced Lauren Sanchez as hostess of "So You Think You Can Dance", for the show's second season): When I first started the show, I said that I'd really like to be involved in the audition process. I wanted to develop a relationship with the dancers right from the beginning. I didn't want them to suddenly turn up to the studio eight weeks into the process and say, 'Hold on a second, who's the English bird?' If it's 5 a.m. and freezing cold and snowing in New York City and they're lining up outside for auditions, I am too. (On getting back into shape after the birth of her first child): I try to do yoga three times a week and eat healthily - although nothing is off limits and I drink lots of water. (On being sawed in half by David Copperfield, using his antique "Buzz Saw" illusion): Even though I'd been sawed in half lots of times before, it was still quite scary, because the saw blade was huge and all too real. And with no box over me, I was able to look down and see the saw going right through my bare waist and into the wood underneath me - I could even see my skin rippling as the saw cut through it. But it didn't really hurt, just tickled a bit, and it was quite an honour to have the chance to do it, as David doesn't usually use it in his shows and just saves it for special occasions. (On her last taping day of pop show CD:UK in England): I've had a great few years, met some really incredible people and been given some wonderful opportunities. Although I always act as if I don't really want to do it, assisting the magicians we have on the show is actually one of my favourite bits. Yeah, the first time I did it, I did feel quite nervous as he started to saw me in half and I felt the saw begin to go through me, but now I've done it quite a few times, it doesn't bother me at all. In fact, now, when the producer says that they've got a magician coming on the show and they want me to assist them, I tell them it's no problem at all and I'm looking forward to seeing what they're going to do to me! References Category:Celebrity magician's assistants Category:Celebrities who've been sawed in half